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And the killing goes on: A Free Syrian Army fighter mourns at the grave of his father, killed by government shelling. Photo: Reuters

For 30 years, the Lebanese Hezbollah has claimed that its army is solely designed to take on Israel and liberate Muslim territory. Now, however, its fighters are engaged in ethnic cleansing in Syria.

Needless to say, Hezbollah (“the Party of God”) has never engaged Israelis on any battlefield. Yes, it has launched terror attacks on Jews in Europe and Latin America, and fired rockets against Israel from a safe distance.

But whenever Israeli troops arrive on the ground, the “volunteers for martyrdom” melt away, hiding in mosques and hospitals among civilians.

As for “liberating Muslim territory,” Hezbollah has failed to snatch enough land on which to spread a prayer mat.

Created by the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah’s army is designed mainly to bully the Lebanese into submission. It is also used for terrorist operations in other countries, including Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen.

But it has hit a new low now, joining the despot Bashar al-Assad’s murder squads against Syrian people.

Last September when I reported that Hezbollah was fighting in Syria, the group and its masters in Tehran launched a campaign of denial. “Hezbollah would never fire a bullet against Muslim brothers,” the party’s TV station, Al-Manar, repeated.

Yet echoes of Hezbollah’s involvement in the massacre of civilians in Syria have been heard across the Middle East. Even the Lebanese media, operating with a Hezbollah gun pressed to their heads, confirm the story — albeit in a roundabout way.

The roundabout way is to publish news briefs in which one reads of so-and-so, a “Holy Warrior of Hezbollah,” who has “achieved martyrdom” and been buried. One is not told how, when and where the “Holly Warrior” achieved “martyrdom.” Families are ordered not to offer details.

In recent days, however, some families of “martyrs” have broken the conspiracy of silence.

One of the latest “martyrs” is Ali Hussein Nassif, whose nom de guerre was Abu-Abbas. He fell on March 2 at the head of a Hezbollah squadron while trying to relieve pressure on a pro-Assad garrison in Syria’s Harmal region, near the Lebanese border.

Seven of Nassif’s squad were killed; four wounded were transferred to a Hezbollah hospital in Lebanon. Syrian army Col. Seyf Kanju also died in the incident.

Talking through Skype on condition of anonymity, a relative of Nassif spoke of the family’s “consternation”: “We had believed that Hezbollah was only to confront Israel,” he said. “No one told us that the party would train pro-Assad forces and fight alongside them.”

Relatives of another “martyr,” Hussein Muhammad Nazar, confirm that he was killed Feb. 1 during a Hezbollah operation in Syria.

At least 21 other Hezbollah members have “achieved martyrdom” since September. Most families refuse to confirm they died in Syria, but Hezbollah isn’t involved in any other active fighting.

Why is Hezbollah helping Assad? Some cite sectarian solidarity as a reason, but the Assad clan practices a religion known as Nusairiyah that is categorized as “ghulat” (deviant) by mainstream Shiism, which is the faith of Hezbollah. Many Shiite theologians, notably Grand Ayatollah Muhsin Araki, even include the Nusairiyah (also often called “Alawites”) among “the Infidel.”

Hezbollah’s decision to fight for Assad can’t be explained in ideological terms either. Assad’s Baathism is an Arab version of secularist fascism, and thus theoretically in fundamental conflict with Hezbollah’s pan-Shiism.

No, Hezbollah is being dragged into the Syrian civil war on orders from Tehran, where Iranian “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei has pledged “not to allow” Assad to fall.

Tehran hopes Assad will either survive or trigger Syria’s disintegration. In the latter case, the Nusairiyah could try to carve out a mini-state between the mountains west of Damascus and the Mediterranean Sea, where they form a majority.

Yet that fallback requires building a corridor between the putative mini-state and Lebanon in order to ferry Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. Problem is, the area needed for the link is dotted by villages where Sunni Muslims opposed to Assad form the majority.

Since September, Assad’s forces have been trying to expel those Sunnis, replacing them with Nusairiyah and Lebanese Shiite settlers. Hezbollah is giving a helping hand to that sinister scheme and paying the price.

Once the Sunni Muslim villages have been ethnically cleansed, Hezbollah would next have to move on villages such as Marmarita, Zeydal and Firuzah that are populated by Christians, as well as ethnic Turcoman villages opposed to Assad, notably Al-Samalil, Aqrab and Talaf.

Assad has embarked on a massive crime against humanity, with Hezbollah as his accomplice.